With a $40 billion voter-approved transit investment being deployed over the next 20 years, Los Angeles County residents are charting a path to a new future. The transit system expansion will add 102 miles of rail transit and almost 100 new stations, while creating 400,000 new jobs.[1] While the City of Los Angeles is ground zero for much of this change - at the core of the transit network and with 113 current and planned stations - 63 other jurisdictions across the County will also enjoy frequent transit, making the scale of change as record-breaking as the pace of change.

The Institute for Transportation & Development Policy's new report, "More Development for Your Transit Dollar: An Analysis of 21 North American Transit Corridors" has been added to the Research Center's best practices database.

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Jeff Wood, Reconnecting America's New Media Director and Chief Cartographer, participated in a radio program on Bay Area station KALW on Sept. 10.
The Your Call program featured a conversation about how the expansion of mass transit system would affect economic productivity. The show discussed Reconnecting America's Moving to Work in the Bay Area report and new research by UC Berkeley showing that depending on the size of a city, the economic value of transit could be worth anywhere from $1.5 million to almost $2 billion dollars a year.
In addition to Wood, program host Rose Aquilar's guests included Dan Chatman, assistant professor of city and regional planning at UC Berkeley, and Debbie Hale, Executive Director Contract Performance Goals and Objectives The Transportation Agency for Monterey County (TAMC).

A new report by the University of Minnesota examining the perspectives of developers and business leaders on achieving transit-oriented jobs-housing balance along the Twin Cities transit network has been added to the Resource Center best practices database.

Two goals in TransLink’s Transport 2040 strategy are to have most trips in the Metro Vancouver, BC, region occur by walking, cycling and transit and to have the majority of jobs and housing in the region located along the Frequent Transit Network. To that end Translink has created a number of transit-oriented development documents. Four of those have been added to the Resource Center best practices.

A master's thesis that explored changes in demographic composition, housing affordability, transportation affordability and job accessibility within the Metro Green Line corridor in Los Angeles has been added to the Research Center best practices database.

TRA recently completed a market analysis and feasibility testing for a transit oriented development (TOD) overlay/zoning ordinance amendment and guidebook for the City of Albany, NY, a project lead by The Cecil Group, Boston. Interestingly, the City of Albany has one active Bus Rapid Transit Line running from downtown to Schenectady. The Capital Region Transit Authority is proposing two other BRT lines emanating roughly from the same point downtown to other points west. The first line has had great success attracting riders. The question put to the consulting team was how can the BRT lines promote development within the city?

A July 2013 report by the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alabama exploring the use of land development as a funding mechanism for transit operating expenses has been added to the Resource Center best practices database.

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The Half-Mile Circles blog is a place to share information about recent research, innovations and other issues related to TOD and livable communities. We also invite experts to talk about their work. Combined with Jeff Wood's The Other Side of the Tracks, the Half-Mile Circles blog is an opportunity for a daily dose of TOD, and allows you to weigh in with your own opinions. Usual blog rules apply; please keep the comment threads civil. To submit an expert article, contact Jeff Wood